Saturday, 12 November 2016

Stop. Hillary Losing Does NOT Equal Women Losing.

And proclaiming it with your social media loudspeakers
blaring on ‘neighbour alert’ doesn’t make you a feminist.

*

I’m going to start with a quick disclaimer: I’m no expert on
politics. People here to find bones in my soup of ponderment (let’s hope this
phrase sounds believable enough to evade Googling) can bow out now—you will
probably win your little battle.

My main mission statement here is less about the election
itself, and more about social media’s extremely diverse (but unfailingly
entertaining) reaction to yesterday’s damning results.

In what seemed like a surreal, lucid dream (or an episode of
Black Mirror/South Park, to reference social media), Donald Trump was declared
the 45th President of the United States of America last morning.

It’s safe to say it was in the internet’s job description to
explode.

As much as the very thought of this man being the leader of
the superpower that is America filled my chest with bile, the creative flicker in
my soul was happy just to be a party to a segment of history that would go down
in the books as something that truly shook the world.

And how do you relish in the very moment, and celebrate
being alive to witness something so momentous (albeit horrific)?

You turn to social media, of course.

I chose to stick to Twitter—in my opinion, the closest to
actual self-expression that social media can get (suffice to say, I’m still not
an Instagram type of ‘gal’), and it delivered—the place was awash with
hilarious cries for help, some genuinely heartbreaking post-election reactions,
and, far more upsetting than anything, the odd Trump-ed Twit talking about how the
‘good days were on their way’.

Luckily, there were enough Tweets about this officially being
the apocalypse to assuage my ebullient panic. Including, might I add, a
hilarious George RR Martin—whose books I haven’t read, and the shows based on
which I’ve never watched, but who’s enough of a cult giant for me to have garnered a small arsenal of catch phrases (“You know nothing, Jon Snow", and ‘I drink, an I know things’
being top of the pile)—to go ‘Winter is coming. Told you so”.

But none of these Tweets annoyed me quite as much as every
woman in the fray choosing this time to go, “Oh, you know why this happened,
right, right, RIGHT? It’s because Hillary’s a WOMAN.”

Wow. Um, No.

What’s upsetting is how a little a grasp of the situation
every person who has Tweeted or Facebooked this has of what has actually been
happening here.

I’m going to start by quoting Tim Urban’s post on WaitButWhy,
because the moment I read this line, I felt a brother-from-another-mother
feeling take over my body. He says, succinctly and bluntly:

I don’t believe that for a second [that we’ll never have a
female president] and I don’t think you do either. Hillary didn’t lose because
she’s a woman. She lost because Hillary is bad at campaigning and because
Trump had a message that resonated with a lot of people and she didn’t. The
country is unbelievably ready to elect a woman as its president and I wouldn’t
be surprised if it happens in the next election or the one after. And it’ll be
so awesome whenever it happens.

Straight off the bat, in said post, Urban declares that he
was supremely crushed at Trump’s victory, but instead of going blind with
seething rage, tried to analyse the situation for what it’s repercussions might
be for the country, and the world.

The point he makes, however, is one I have been too wary to
make because the world is currently up in arms, waiting to slice and dice
anyone that toes the myriad lines of political correctness in the smallest of
measures.

Regardless, as someone who may not be able to call herself
many things with the kind of ardent axiom she can call herself a feminist, I
feel like I can be candid.

I will be damned if you make this about feminism.

Has America screwed up? Yes, indeedio! Will it’s
consequences have a catastrophic domino effect for generations to come?
Probably! Did they just vote in (even though popular vote says they didn’t, but
ah, semantics) a man who’s going to be the political equivalent of termites?
They sure have!

But that’s the thing though? They didn’t do it because
Hillary is a woman.

The people that voted for Trump did it because this man is
out and proud about having the wildly bigoted, sexist and ruthless worldview he does (and believe me, ruthlessness is frightening enough in an intelligent man)—and because they like that about him. They don’t hate Hillary for being a woman,
they hate her for her views on abortion, on letting in refugees, or racial harmony—and
those views to them would have been as unattractive in the guise of a man (or
so I’d like to believe).

The proof of the pudding is how wildly the same people
slammed Obama, asked for his birth certificate, and called his legalization of
gay marriage ‘a straight move to landing the country in hell.’ I speak of those
that genuinely think #MakeAmericaGreatAgain is a stellar idea, and now there is
nothing to do but watch from the sidelines as the country unravels, and its
whole foundation of liberty comes apart at the seams.

The fact is, the America she was standing for isn’t smart
enough, or liberal enough, to want her.

But to peg that on the fact that she’s a woman demeans not
only her, but the idea of feminism. The one kind of woman I detest, is the kind that uses feminism as a shield, at the ready. ‘Oh,
you don’t like my poem? You’re just hating on me because I’m a woman?’ ‘Oh you
think I’m not funny? Is it because you think WOMEN aren’t funny?’ ‘The only reason I didn’t
get that promotion is because I’m a woman.’

I’m sure there are lots of circumstances where that’s
true—but there are many where it really fucking isn’t, and to pretend that’s
why it’s happening makes you pretty despicable. The whole idea of feminism is
to stand level, not to try and use it to get a leg up. In this case, you are boiling
everything the person that is Hillary stood for with her gender—which is
a part—not the essence—of who she is. To say she lost because she’s a woman is
a cheat, a low attempt by someone who either knows nothing of, or has totally
misread, the election, and wants to feel included in the conversation.

Hillary didn’t win because America doesn’t deserve for her
to win. And I’m pretty sure Hillary is woman enough to know that.